MIAMI, Fla, Dec. 06 /CSRwire/ - Marva Y. Bannerman Park has a brand new, custom-built outdoor gym designed to foster fitness and health while providing a positive impact for the entire community. The new Fitness Zone® installation from The Trust for Public Land (TPL) was made possible by the financial support from UnitedHealthcare’s advertising through CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd program. The Fitness Zone is part of TPL’s Parks for People- Miami program and will provide opportunities for physical activity in Liberty City’s community, where obesity rates and related diabetes rates are disproportionately high and access to fitness facilities is limited.

A ribbon-cutting celebration hosted by The Honorable Carlos Gimenez Mayor, Miami-Dade County, Audrey Edmonson District 3 Commissioner, Miami-Dade County, Jack Kardys Director, Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation & Open Spaces, Brenda McClymonds Miami-Dade Program Director, The Trust for Public Land, Igor Alonso, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement, and Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia Inc. Special guests included WNBA legend, two-time Gold Medal Olympic winner and founder of the Cash For Kids Foundation, Swin Cash of the Chicago Sky as well as many UnitedHealthcare volunteers and members of the community who worked to clean and prepare the park for the installation of the new Fitness Zone®.

Adjacent to Brownsville Middle School, Marva Y. Bannerman Park was closed to the public for many years and was only recently re-opened. The new Fitness Zone and other park enhancements are expected to revitalize the park, making it once again a center for community gatherings, student use and neighborhood activities.

“UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to promoting the importance of physical activity and good nutrition among people of all ages,” said Igor Alonso, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement. “We’re happy to partner with the Trust for Public Land, Miami-Dade County and EcoMedia to help people living in the Liberty City neighborhood live healthier lives.”

As part of their “Do Good, Live Well” initiative, United Healthcare volunteers joined members of the community on Saturday to clean and prepare the park for today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and opening of the Fitness Zone. Volunteers returned this morning to demonstrate the new exercise equipment and offer tips and encouragement for the many neighborhood attendees who turned out to give the Fitness Zone a try.

“Fifty percent of Americans get less exercise than recommended, and The Trust for Public Land’s Fitness Zone installations bring a new set of healthy activities to the park experience,” said Chris Kay, The Trust for Public Land’s COO and Senior Vice President. “We are grateful to UnitedHealthcare for selecting our Miami Fitness Zone installation at Liberty City’s Marva Y. Bannerman Park as the recipient of its Wellness Ad funding. It will make a considerable difference for the health of the families that visit the park.”

UnitedHealthcare’s funding comes through a nationwide partnership with CBS EcoMedia and its unique WellnessAd program that connects advertisers with tangible health and wellness projects in communities across the country. The improved environment and addition of the exercise equipment is expected to increase use of the entire park and have a positive impact on the surrounding underserved Liberty City community.

“EcoMedia, along with our partners UnitedHealthCare and The Trust for Public Land, is delighted to open a Fitness Zone at Marva Y. Bannerman Park,” said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia. “It’s so important to make a personal commitment to health and fitness – but it’s also critical to have access to recreational facilities that support our personal wellness goals. We hope that the Zone will help to make Bannerman a health and recreation destination for folks of all ages. And, through our WellnessAd Program, we look forward to bringing similar projects to other communities nationwide.”

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. UnitedHealthcare serves more than 38 million people and is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.

About The Trust for Public LandFounded in 1972, The Trust for Public Land is the leading nonprofit working to conserve land for people. Operating from more than 30 offices nationwide, The Trust for Public Land has protected more than three million acres from the inner city to the wilderness and helped generate more than 34 billion in public funds for conservation. Nearly ten million people live within a ten-minute walk of a Trust for Public Land park, garden, or natural area, and millions more visit these sites every year. Learn more at tpl.org

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.

AtEcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002. In 2008, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media.

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide. In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change. Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more.

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities. EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.